Friday, August 8, 2014

1st day of Unkhe (Ryukyuan Obon): Henoko residents pray for peace & ask their ancestors for help in protecting their natural cultural heritage at the Sea of Henoko

Via our friends at Okinawa Outreach, translated summary of an Okinawa Times story, Henoko locals pray for ancestral support of their efforts to save their natural cultural heritage from destruction by the US and Japanese governments:

Today is the first day of Obon, called Unkhe, Okinawa celebrated the return of their ancestral spirits.

At the gate of Camp Schwab, [a US marine training and weapons testing base in central Okinawa, built on land forcibly acquired from local residents during the 1950's "Bayonets and Bulldozers" period of military expansion throughout the prefecture], local residents prayed for peace and ask their ancestors for help to stop construction of a new US military port and air training base at Henoko/Oura Bay [habitat of the Okinawa Dugong, a sacred cultural icon, and Okinawa's best and most biodiverse coral reef], offering incense sticks.